%Finite Centered Difference: This m-file will compute the derivative of a %hardwired function (x^5) h=10.^(-20:1); %given h-values deriv_approx=[(1+h).^5-(1-h).^5]./(2.*h); %finite centered derivative for each value of h difference=deriv_approx-5; %difference between finite centered difference and true value figure; %set up new plotting area subplot(2,1,1);semilogx(h,deriv_approx,'o'); %set up sub-plot and draw semilog plot axis([0 h(20) 0 10]); xlabel('h value'); ylabel('derivate of x^5 at x=1'); subplot(2,1,2);semilogx(h,difference,'x'); axis([0 h(20) 0 1]); xlabel('h value'); ylabel('difference between der and true value');